FAA Investigating False Flight IDs

The FAA has received reports from Eurocontrol, Airservices Australia and Nav Canada that the mode-S transponders of some U.S.-registered aircraft transmit a FLTID that does not correlate to the aircraft identification indicated on the flight plan. This could lead to aircraft being misidentified. In such instances, ATC will ask the flight crew to either correct the erroneous FLTID—some equipment may not allow this while airborne—or will assign the aircraft a discrete transponder code. The reason for the inaccurate IDs is not yet known.